Putting visitors behind the wheel helped steer Bowling Green’s National Corvette Museum and Motorsports Park to a record year in 2017.

With new attractions such as vintage Corvette rides, go-kart races and an in-depth Corvette Experience, the museum and the NCM Motorsports Park both reached another gear during the past 12 months.

Katie Ellison, marketing and communications manager for the museum and the motorsports park, said museum attendance reached 228,744 and the track brought in 60,840 visitors last year. It was the third consecutive year of increased attendance for both attractions, Ellison said.

“We try to change and stay fresh,” Ellison said. “Adding the rides in the museum-owned Corvettes was a popular thing for us in 2017.”

The rides, which cost $20, give visitors an opportunity to experience riding in such cars as a 1966 convertible, a 1979 Coupe and a 2003 50th anniversary convertible.

“People can choose from the Corvettes available in the museum,” Ellison said. “It’s a seasonal thing that will pick up again in March. It has been a pretty popular attraction, and it’s a good way to get museum cars out on the road.”

Visitors wanting more than a ride-along can go to the track, where they can take a Corvette for four laps around the three-mile course for $199 or do the full $599 Corvette Experience that includes three track sessions, classroom sessions and other amenities.

The racetrack is also available for visitors wanting to take their own cars for a high-speed spin, and the new NCM Kartplex offers the opportunity to drive high-speed go-karts.

When you add up all these new attractions, they put the museum on the fast track to higher attendance.

“We’ve continued to look for opportunities to utilize the motorsports park,” said Wendell Strode, the museum’s executive director. “We were later in the year getting the go-karts started, but once they were going it was well-received.”

The driving experiences aren’t providing all the fuel for the museum’s growth, Ellison said. Four years after it happened, the Corvette-swallowing sinkhole at the museum is still drawing visitors.

“There’s still interest in the sinkhole,” Ellison said of the February 2014 event in the museum’s skydome that left eight of the sports cars to be fished out of a 20-foot-deep muddy hole. “We’re lucky that it’s still a draw for us.”

Luck has had little to do with the continuing draw of the sinkhole and the museum, according to Bowling Green Area Convention & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Vicki Fitch.

“I can’t applaud them enough for how they handled that sinkhole,” Fitch said. “I’m excited that it’s still bringing visitors and that they keep adding attractions. Our main attractions in Bowling Green continue to grow, and that helps us as we promote tourism.”

Ellison said the museum is continuing to come up with ways to help Fitch and the local tourism industry. A new racing simulator in the museum lobby allows visitors to sit in a real Corvette and take a virtual ride while surrounded by three large video screens.

“If you don’t have time for a tour, you can do the simulator for $10,” Ellison said. “It feels and sounds like a real one. It’s a great way to get practice if you’re going on the track.”

The simulator is just one addition Strode has in the works for 2018 as he aims to keep the attendance numbers growing.

“We’re continuing to look for opportunities to utilize the track,” he said.

“We’re investigating having Christmas lights around the track from Thanksgiving through early January. People can drive the track and see the lights.

“We continue trying to increase attendance from the community, the region and the state. And we purposely try to market ourselves to people traveling the interstate and to motorcycle clubs and Corvette clubs. We had a nice increase in those last year.”